Resilience - Be the Rubber | Okinawan Sweet Potato Pie with Coconut Haupia

I am rubber, you are glue. Whatever you say to me bounces off and sticks to you.

How. I. Wish.

Resilience...

Is my growth virtue. In doing fasts and generally pushing my limits in the last few months, I learned that not only am I physically fragile, I can be a little too thin-skinned sometimes. The affirmation that helps me deal with this is Julia Cameron's, "Treating myself like a precious object helps me grow strong."

TC sent me this Okinawan Sweet Potato Haupia pie recipe for Pi Day. The pie is as if pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, and coconut cream pie had a three-way, and this is the result. I found the s.p. at my local Asian grocery store. They are sweeter than regular sweet potatoes and make a fun mash. Videre licet: Vegan pica supper: blended sp and water, steamed spinach, cayenne, Daiya mozzarella, and frozen guac. Someone was cleaning out the freezer...

This recipe is Mama D approved!

Okinawan Sweet Potato Haupia Pie

Source: Just a Pinch

Crust:

3/4 c cold, vegan margarine (I used 1 stick Earth Balance vegan buttery stick and 4 tablespoons EB coconut spread)

2 tablespoons coconut sugar

1 3/4 cups millet flour

1 cup almond meal

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 1/4 cups roasted or boiled and peeled Okinawan sweet potatoes

2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup agave

1 cup nondairy milk (hemp)

1/4 cup arrowroot starch

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Haupia:

1 cup coconut cream

1 cup nondairy milk (I used 1/3 hemp and 2/3 unsweetened vanilla coconut)

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup organic sugar (for white colour; use coconut sugar for brown)

1/3 cup arrowroot

1 cup large flake unsweetened coconut, toasted, for topping and anti plastique wrap stickery trickery

To make the crust, grease two 9-inch pie plates and set aside. Combine all dry ingedients in a large bowl. Cut in margarine with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Press mixture into pie plates. Chill in the fridge for an hour.

An hour later, preheat oven to 350 degrees (you can toast the coconut in the preheating oven now until desired degree of brownness). Bake the crusts for 12 minutes or until lightly brown. Remove from the oven and set aside. Depending on your timetable, you can either keep the oven on and proceed or take a break and resume later.

Whichever you decide, in a blender or food processor, blitz all the filling ingredients until uniformly combined. Transfer to the prepared crusts, filling each halfway. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until set and not jiggly in the centre. Remove from the oven to a rack to let cool.

In a large saucepan over low heat, begin to melt the coconut cream and nondairy milk. In a large measuring cup, whisk together the sugar, arrowroot, and water. Add the water mixture to the cream mixture and turn up the heat to medium-hig. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Immeditely pour over each of the pies and smooth it out. Top each pie with toasted coconut. Cover with plastic wrap when completely cool and chill in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight before serving.

Parting shots:

Baked sweet potatoes